Follow Us on Google
•How old farmer was slaughtered, family seeks justice
From Jude Dangwam, Jos
Thirty-seven year-old Paul Joshua, a native of Gassa community of Kassa Village in Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State will not in a hurry forget the horror of August 24, 2023. It was the day his father, Dara Joshua Deme, was held while working on his irrigation farm, tied with a rope and slaughtered like animal by bandits.
Paul is the fourth out of six children. He recalls with deep pain how his father was killed, especially when he sets eyes on the rope used in binding his father before slaughtering currently in his custody.
He said: “It was 7pm of that faithful day, Friday, August 24, 2023 when my mother drew my attention to the fact that our father had not returned from the farm since morning, which was unusual of him. We set out to the farm and then came men of the Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) in their truck. We told them that our father went to farm and was not yet back up to that hour.
“So, they accompanied us but got stuck at some point because their car could not get down to the farm due to bad road. They told us to come back the next day so that they will go for a search in the day time.”
Paul said they came back with the security personnel but kept wondering how he was going to sleep without knowing the whereabouts of his father. He kept pondering whether his father was in a terrible condition that needed help.
“I was thinking maybe he had been injured and was in need of help. So, I summoned courage and pleaded with some of our youths and we moved down to the farm after the soldiers left. When we arrived our farm, I saw my father tied with a cow rope and had already been slaughtered.
“We hurriedly moved the body because there was no any security personnel again to protect us. And since it was night already, the following day we went back to the farm to further see things for ourselves and we saw how cows scattered the farm.
“I have never heard that a human being is slaughtered except in movies. I want those who did this to be prosecuted, ” he angrily stated
Holding the blood stained rope in his hands, Paul said it remain his greatest nightmare. “I still have the rope with me. Anytime I set my eyes on this rope, it reminds me with pain how my father was killed,” he painfully stated.
His aged mother, Ngo Tabitha Joseph Deme, who is in her 80s, recalled with nostalgia how they both got married in their youthful days and bound together until his tragic death.
The tragic death of her beloved husband, she said, has continued to give her sleepless night amidst her health condition.
“We got wedded long ago as young couples in the Church (Auren zobe) in those days when bicycle was a talk of the town. There was no motorcycle or cars like the way you people have now. After our wedding, they carried us on bicycles,” she said.
The widow became emotional while recalling the evil day. She said: “Baba used to go to farm and come back very early. On that fateful day before he left for the farm, I put kunu (local drink) for him which he took along with him. But he suddenly came back and dropped the kunu. I asked him, why did he drop the kunu.
“He said he won’t stay long in the farm that day. But he did not come back by 6pm which was unusual and I had to call his son and complain that Dara is yet to come home since morning. He said they will go and look for him and it was already past 7pm.”
The widow noted that it was unbelievable that her husband was found slaughtered on the farm, something that looked strange to the entire community.
“They found his dead body on the farm but couldn’t let us know that night until the following morning I was told that Baba was found slaughtered on the farm. In my entire life, I have never heard that a human being was slaughtered.
“And because of the shock, since this incident, I find it difficult to sleep. They bought some drugs for me but sleep refused to come.
“I keep thinking everyday how my husband was slaughtered like a chicken; this thing has continued to surprise me seriously. If he died as a result of sickness, it would have been better. But for you to grab somebody just like that and slaughter him like animal is shocking. Seriously, it has continued to beat my imagination
“If only I see those who did this to my husband, I will retaliate. That is the only way I can get some relief. For them to slaughter my husband with knife like chicken, I won’t leave them. I need justice for my husband.”
The aged widow decried her pathetic condition, especially now that her husband is no more. “For some years now, I don’t work because of my diabetic health condition. He has been the one struggling with me. The children buy drugs, he buys too, but I’m thinking now that he is not around, what will happen.
“I’m even wishing that this sickness should just take my life so that I can just go with him because nobody can endure doing what he was doing for me. I don’t work as you can see me like this because of my health condition,” she lamented bitterly.
Dara Thomas Pam, a very close ally of Deme in Gassa community of Kassa Village, Barkin-Ladi LGA of Plateau State was also on his farm that faithful day. He had insisted that they should leave the farm and go home due to the heavy presence of the Fulani herders coming down from the hills.
The 75-year-old Da Pam recalled how sometimes they used his car and go to farm together. They always shared their kunu together after working on their farms before coming back home.
He said: “We normally used my car to go to farm. I will drop him before proceeding to my farm. But this fuel increasment has affected me, so I dropped my car. If only I went with my car, I’m sure he would have come back with me.
“We spoke with him that day in the morning before going to the farm. I later went down to my farm and met him working on his farm.
“You will meet his farm before my own, so we worked on our irrigation farms and by 3.30pm I came up and told him that we should go home and he said he wanted to finish the small portion of work left before going home.
“I insisted that we should go home three times, but he declined. I said he should see how Fulanis are in their numbers coming down from the hills let us go, he insisted he want to finish the small work left before going. So, I left and sometimes I will stop and look back to see whether he was coming after me or not until I reached home.
“Little did I know that he couldn’t make it home until late evening his children came to my house. It was already past 9pm and they were asking if their father and I met on the farm. I narrated what transpired between him and I on the farm, and they said they were going down to the farm that night.
“My greatest shock and pain is how he was tied and slaughtered like a ram. This has never happened in this community. In my old age, I have never heard that someone was killed that way.
“There should be justice for him. Whoever did this should be made to pay the same price. If government will be just, somebody that killed another person should also be killed. If government is compassionate, they should look after the family he left behind.”
The National President of Gassa Youth Association, Mr Pam Bulus Dung, expressed fear that the new dimension of killing is a signal to another trend of crime possibly introduced by strange elements or the execution of a new ideology on their communities by machineries suspected to be herders.
He said: “For the first time we are witnessing somebody slaughtered on the farm. This is the first time seeing somebody being slaughtered like a goat, and this is signaling us that something new is coming.
“That is a new trend of killing: you tie somebody with a rope and slaughter him. We only see this in movies. How are we sure that is not ISWAP elements that have come because if you look at the nature of killing, it is their trend of killing.
“And for the strange activities we are beginning to witness in this our area, it means that strange people are around but we can’t just tell because this killing is shocking and barbaric.”
However, the Commander of the Special Force in Plateau State, part of Bauchi and Southern Kaduna states through the media information officer of Operation Safe Haven, Captain Oya James, has disclosed that troops of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) and Operation HAKORIN DAMISA IV from have arrested 17 criminal suspects in connection with murder, kidnapping and armed robbery as well as recovered arms/ammunition and illicit drugs among which are suspected killers of Dara Joshua Deme.
“The troops arrested five murder suspects for killing one Mr Joshua Deme in his farm at Kassa village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, ” said Oya.
The special force said the suspects are going to be charged to court. But the Deme family are skeptical that justice might not be served considering their poor status and cannot withstand the financial muscle of the killers.
